heywoodu

Lol, nonsense red card.

Fantastic spirit though, if they hold on this is one of the big sports fairytales of the past 20 years, no doubt.

Right, time to burn and destroy other people's stuff to celebrate the victory

Goalkeeper pushed his own defender away

But you were at least one country not that long ago. We might be in the same corner as Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany and such, but I have no idea why I'd cheer for them other than because I like a certain player or team (but as usual, the flag behind the name isn't relevant for that) Anyway, in the end people should of course just cheer for whoever they want, free world and all

National identity and a separate ethnic identity to cheer for if the national one doesn't work, it does give one double chances to feel like winning, that's smart

Must be cool to simply switch to cheering for whoever is from your general area on the map so even if your own team is so bad it can't even qualify, you still have something to cheer for as if it's home

To be fair, this is also part of what makes this specific match-up awesome. Netherlands - Germany, yeah, there was real hate in the 70's, 80's and 90's. People didn't give a fuck about winning Euro '88 the moment the Germans were defeated in the semi's, that was the real final. People like Rudi Völler and Lothar Matthäus were hated with an intensity I don't think will ever come back for anyone. However, nowadays, not much wrong with the Germans. Schweinsteiger had a rather annoying flair about him, but not much else, it's not really a rivalry anymore. Argentina however...man, that's the real enemy here Slightly ahead of Portugal, but that's more recent, so it doesn't beat the rivalry with Argentina. It's as tense as can be, but I love the overall excitement over a knock-out match with Argentina. At least here it really felt like 'shit is on, let's go!' The Dutch team just seriously sucked this year, so yeah...it's a miracle it even got back to 2-2.

Oh, I thought there were actual things being said, but just the standard back-and-forth stuff then Van Gaal is not someone who says those things to provoke, he is being asked about certain things and he answers them the way he thinks. If he sees Messi never does much defending, and someone asks about it, there's zero reason for him to say something else. After the 1/8th finals he also said he was highly unimpressed with Brazil. Which wasn't such a weird thing to say, it seems

If even Messi, who got helped by the referee all the time (including right in this picture), complains that the referee was awful...yeah, the referee was awful

Van Gaal and Weghorst said anything before the match? Must not have been too big for it to barely even have been picked up here

People like this guy are why you'd cheer against certain people

Well shit. Awful first 80 minutes or so by the Netherlands, insane and awesome rest until the 2-2. Referee being rather annoying with showing yellows to everyone and their mother, but apart from being heavily starstruck by Messi and punishing anyone who dares take the ball away from Him, it was at least yellows to everyone on either side Not terrible penalties by Van Dijk and Berghuis, but yeah...fantastic work by that Argentinian goalkeeper.

Johan Cruijff and Jesper Olsen doe Ajax disagree but I have no time to find the video of their penalty now

And more fighting This is a classic Netherlands - Argentina if ever I've seen one

Hahahahaha I have never seen such a pussy free kick work out so well

One thing is for certain, this referee won't do the final

Still too few, but alright.

Two full minutes to take a free kick

And yellow for Berghuis for looking at the superstar

I still can't hear Timber's name without thinking and sometimes saying "Timbeeeeeer"

Thrown off the field by his arms and legs, and we can continue. Some more yellows left and right meanwhile, the referee really wants to make sure people know he has a card

People entering the field, security fighting them.

Here we were all basically agreeing with the penalty.

Messi with a volleyball move like Romero, but no yellow or anything. I guess as Argentinian superstar you're allowed a little more with the hand at a World Cup